


play your part

by Narci



Series: See the Forest, Not Just the Trees [7]
Category: Mo Dao Zu Shi, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Genre: Angst, Burial Mounds, Canon Compliant, Gen, Self-Sacrifice, Sunshot Campaign, Yiling Patriarch!WWX, familial ties, is still wwx, no beta we die like wen ruohan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:01:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26597992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narci/pseuds/Narci
Summary: Wen Qing has been a great many things in her life. A beloved older sister. A strong Shijie. A talented doctor. A trusted right hand to Wen Ruohan. A traitor to Wen Ruohan. An outcast to be hunted. A trusted right hand to Wei Wuxian. A sacrificial lamb. Then, she was dead, and that role was probably the easiest of all.-/-character study of wwx by wq
Relationships: Wei Wuxian & Wen Ning, Wen Qing & Wei Wuxian, Wen Qing & Wen Ning
Series: See the Forest, Not Just the Trees [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1915600
Comments: 8
Kudos: 126





	play your part

Wen Qing was never overly interested in the more artistic side of the great arts. She never learned musical cultivation. She never listened to many stories, never went to see street plays. Regardless, she thinks she’s a good actress. She certainly has enough experience playing roles.

Some things come naturally to Wen Qing. Acting is not one of those things. It took hours every morning to convince herself not to run away from the Wen Sect altogether. To walk out there and help the worst person she’d ever known. That if she did, her branch family would be safe. 

Wen Qing is almost entirely certain Wei Wuxian never had such compunctions with acting. She is rather sure that when Young Master Wei decides to play a role, he never regrets or questions his own reasoning. 

She vaguely remembers a conversation she had with him while they were preparing for the Golden Core surgery. It went something like this:

_{“I don’t understand you, Wei Wuxian.”_

_“Hm?” Wei Wuxian pulled his face from a thick scroll to look up at her. She wasn’t facing his way, she hadn’t actually moved while speaking. “What do you mean?”_

_“Why would you do this for him?” She raised her head at ‘him’ and met his eyes with a terrifying intensity. He laughed through the sudden tension._

_“Didn’t I already tell you? He can’t be Sect Leader without a Golden Core. He can’t even live peacefully without one.”_

_Wen Qing shook her head with short movements, “That’s why he needs to have one. Why would you give him your own? Why does it have to be yours?”_

_Wei Wuxian’s laugh was six times more bitter than before, “Who else would be willing to stay conscious through an unbelievably painful three day procedure only to lose something they spent their whole life cultivating? Who else would be crazy enough to do that?”_

_“So why are you?”_

_“I have to do this. He’s my brother. I promised to take care of him. I promised, and this one never breaks his promises.” Wen Qing could see that he wasn’t just convincing her because after he finished speaking, Wei Wuxian went back to closely studying the medical script in front of him._

_“Ha! This is it!” Wen Qing let the topic pass as she moved around the table to look at the paper Wei Wuxian held._

_“Yes,” she agreed seriously.}._

And that was the last time she ever asked why Wei Wuxian would do something so self-sacrificing. She knew she’d never get a satisfying answer, so what was the point? Once Wei Wuxian decided to do something, he’d do it. No matter how much it hurt him.

-/-

When Wen Qing goes to ask Wei Wuxian for help, she knows he will not turn her down. 

_“Wen Qing?”_

_“It’s-it’s A-Ning… you have to stop them! You have to help me save him, please!”_

_“Wen Ning? What happened?”_

She knows that he takes every role he plays with the utmost sincerity. If Wei Wuxian ever decides you’re his friend, he’s already willing to die for you. Wei Wuxian considers her brother one of his friends, and he feels indebted to her for what happened with Jiang Cheng. She knows he will not turn her down. 

(She never manages to rid herself of the guilt she feels because of that fact. She never manages to rid herself of the sticky regret in the back of her throat because… well, she didn’t really give him a chance to not be involved with the Wens. She knew he would never say no. She knew that as soon as she asked, he would throw everything away to save her brother.)

Wei Wuxian brings her brother back to life and protects the Wen remnants without even considering the impossibility of his actions. Despite not actually being a Jiang, Wen Qing thinks somberly, he sure does act like one.

-/-

She spends months with Young Master Wei on the Burial Mounds. Scolds him for buying the wrong things. Scolds him for injuring himself when he knew he couldn’t heal quickly anymore. Scolds him for continuing to protect them even though she knows he will never stop protecting them, not until he’s dead (and she begins to fear that that may not be as far off as they all hope).

She sees him slip flawlessly from role to role whilst simultaneously maintaining the cohesive cover that the name Wei Wuxian provides him.

Everyone knows Wei Wuxian. He used to be a wildly talented young master. A wildly talented young cultivator. He used to be, and still is, a mischievous little brat. He does the impossible. He never lets things get to him, and he always does what he thinks is right.

He’s also the Yiling Patriarch. The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. He scares people, he is not scared. He kills people, and it seems that he himself cannot be killed (until he is).

To A-Yuan, Wei Wuxian is Xian-gege. The one who never turns A-Yuan down when he wants to play. The one that always gives the boy a little extra food. The one that is always being scolded by Wen Qing.

To Wen Qing, he looks tired. Wei Wuxian looks like he hasn’t had a break his entire life. She regrets adding more weight to his shoulders, but she can’t change it now. It’s much too late to convince him to save himself and let the Wens face what they must face. All she can do is play his supporting role. To continue scolding him and patching up his wounds.

And so she does.

-/-

She finally gets a chance to repay Wei Wuxian. Jin Zixuan died, and she knows that the relative peace the Wens had been living in was going to come crashing down soon. Wei Wuxian couldn’t do anything to stop that, not when almost all the Great Sects were now against him. 

If the Wens are doomed either way, then maybe they can protect Wei Wuxian along the way. Just maybe, they can even out all the good he’s done for them.

-/-

“Thank you, and I’m sorry.”

Wei Wuxian looks tortured when he finds that he cannot do anything to stop her.

  
  


fin.

**Author's Note:**

> *sniffles* i finally got the WQ part done. it was a rough start, but the rest came easily...
> 
> i hope y'all like this one too! leave a comment or a kudos, they give me life!
> 
> anyway, i gotta go cry over 'thank you and i'm sorry' and then decide which part to do next.
> 
> all my love XOXO


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